He might be a glutton for punishment. If he feels pain, he doesn't fear it. He survived 10 years in the NFL by doing the dirty work, once taking the field with such a mangled elbow that a teammate known as Megatron remembers him "playing with one arm." He'll bypass the easy road to take the hard one twice.
Dan Campbell has always been drawn to the Lions. He signed here toward the end of his playing days for the same reason he would eventually return as the head coach: to upend history. To be a force of change. To shake the Same Old Lions out of their same old ways, which starts by tackling their past.
"For me, it was one of the reasons I wanted to sign here because, man, who doesn’t want to come here and be part of the team that turns it around?" Campbell said Thursday. "That’s a motivating factor."
Motivation abounds for this year's Lions. Everywhere you look, there's a player with something to prove. A former Super Bowl quarterback in a make-or-break season. A second overall pick in year one, a third overall pick trying to make year three count. A defense that needs them both. A running back trying to do right by his talent, an offensive line trying to fulfill its potential. A green roster assembled by a green GM, led by a gang of gung-ho coaches who drop to the grass at the start of practice and sweat through up-downs with the players.
Campbell's focus is fixed on the present. He doesn't bring up the past often, not around the team. When he does, he has the future in mind. He said in a recent interview with Peter King that he and the Lions use 'SOL' as fuel and that he sees Rich Strike potential in this year's team; maybe that's why Vegas seems to love them.
"I know this: anything that you do believe, you gotta create hope," Campbell said Wednesday on Fox 2's Lions Training Camp Special. "When we talk about things, we have to believe in them. So when I do bring it up, there’s only one way to change it, and that’s by finding a way to win games. That’s how you change this whole narrative. Look, it’s been that way for a reason. I get it, we all get it. But we can be the group that changes it."
The easy road runs away from the past, and usually leads nowhere. Campbell is taking the hard one by trying to run through it. By confronting the challenge he is aiming to conquer it. At the same time, he has an eye on the road ahead. Campbell was groomed under Super-Bowl winning coach Sean Payton, who taught him in New Orleans: "Start at the end and work backward."
"He was always about that, so I’m that way very much so. I can tell you before I took this job that I envisioned us being in downtown Detroit with a trophy and this city going crazy. And better than most cities, because, man, this place is about sports and it’s about the Lions," said Campbell. "All we gotta do is do our part."
Their part is the hardest part. All of Campbell's predecessors could attest. But none were quite like him, fearless without being fake, feisty and frothing for change. Campbell is more than just bark, guiding a team trying to prove it is more than just bite. The Lions played hard throughout last season, and played well toward the end. They added talent in the offseason. The HBO cameras roaming the grounds at Allen Park confirm they have caught the NFL's eye.
They won't upend history this season. The hard road is long. It is equally cruel, as Campbell learned last season. It beckons and bends and drops off a cliff. But if the Same Old Lions become the Lions of old, this feels like the year it will start. Call Campbell crazy. Call him twisted for his attachment to a tortured team. Hell, call him doomed. As he leads the Lions toward tomorrow, just don't call him scared.
"Once you have gone through the great suffering, if you will, as it pertains to sports and Lions football, man, that’s when there’s a great triumph," said Campbell. "And to be a part of that, to be able to help it become that, that’s something special."
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